Jupiter with only one Galilean moon visible 03/26

On Tuesday evening, March 26th, 2013, in the Eastern portion on North America, only one Galilean moon will be visible staring at 8:41 PM.

Here are the approximate times of the satellite events. Note they were generated for the Northeastern portion on North America so the time maybe be different for you depending upon your observing location.

7:47 PM Ganymede (III) Occultation disappearance

8:20 PM Europa (II) Transit start

8:41 PM Io (I) Occultation disappearance

10:12 PM Ganymede (III) Occultation reappearance

10:43 PM Europa (II) Shadow transit start

10:48 PM Europa (II) Transit end

12:04 AM Io (I) Eclipse reappearance

I observed this event once before in August of 1976, although in that case I did not have an advanced warning. I had set up my Criterion RV-6 reflector to observe Jupiter and was surprised to see that only one moon was visible. I have often wondered since then if I would get the chance to observe this event again.

Note that Jupiter with only one Galilean moon visible will occur again on April 3rd, 2013 at 12:03 AM for all of North America except the East.

Thanks for the heads-up. I remember shortly after I got into this hobby, Sept. 3 2009, there was a night when no moons were visible. That was something, but I didn't know how much of a something it was at the time

Hey Paul, I was also observing on Jupiter's moonless night. After having looked at Jupiter hundreds of times, this was sort of a surreal experience that I might never see again.

Hey Dan!

Looks like the next chance for a "moonless" Jupiter that we can observe won't be until 2033. There are other "moonless" Jupiter occurrences before then (soonest is 2019) but they are not observable (at least from the East Coast of the US).

I spent some time looking for something listing the frequency of Jupiter with 3, 2, 1, and 0 Moons.

On Tuesday evening, March 26th, 2013, in the Eastern portion on North America, only one Galilean moon will be visible staring at 8:41 PM...

7:47 PM Ganymede (III) Occultation disappearance

8:20 PM Europa (II) Transit start

8:41 PM Io (I) Occultation disappearance

10:12 PM Ganymede (III) Occultation reappearance

10:43 PM Europa (II) Shadow transit start

10:48 PM Europa (II) Transit end

12:04 AM Io (I) Eclipse reappearance

Thanks for the notice, Eric.

Note that you don't need to be that far east in North America to see this event. What I gather from those times is that the "event" lasts from 8:41 p.m. to 10:12 p.m. EDT. At my location in Arizona, the sun will have set before Ganymede's egress. I'll pass this information on to our Arizona observers' e-mail list.

Picked up Jupiter with Callisto only, well away from the disc, about 15 minutes after sunset. Ten minutes later, Ganymede slowly emerged from behind the north half of the disc.

I still can't see Europa in front of the planet. No one notices the contrast of white on white. The shadow event for Europa will begin in 20 minutes, just as Europa gets ready to depart from in front of Jupiter. We should be able to see Europa then, thanks to contrast against the darker limb.

Watched this tonight. Clouds came in just before the shadow. Waited for a thin spot in the clouds and got a pretty good look. Ganymede just off the edge. Shadow (teeny spot!) from Europa coming and going. Patience needed. Lucky break. I'm always amazed what can be seen through hazy clouds. The bands on Jupiter were pretty good too. Maybe less glare?
Thanks for the heads up!

We observed this cool event from the Ladd Observatory in Providence, RI. We had a good crowd, mainly beacuse we've had such lousy weather here in Providence, and people were just anxious to get out and observe!! We had a perfect night for that!!

May 28, 2020 is a date I must mark in my calendar. 11:16-13:12 UTC will be a moonless Jupiter with its GRS transiting during that time and Saturn about 4°47' away. It will be visible here in California weather permitting and May is generally a good weather month so it might actually turn out to be a glorious day.

I set up the TMB 105mm (4.1") f/6.2 on its alt-az mount to observe Jupiter.

Unfortunately while the sky was clear the seeing was mostly fair at best, and a westerly breeze picked up from time to time that also degraded the seeing.

So this made it difficult to observe Ganymede as it disappeared into occultation, and I was only able to catch a quick look at Io before it disappeared. The same held true for start of the Europa shadow transit. By the time they were to reappear Jupiter had slid behind the trees from my observing location.

Still it was nice to observe Jupiter with only one Galilean moon visible (Callisto) again since the last time I observed it back in 1976.